I have 7 of the FedEx 911 chickens that were stopped in Anchorage Alaska with no place to go. These were suspose to be all hens...but I have decided that I have 5 roosters and 2 hens. These were going to KOREA for egg production. Maybe I can see why the company wanted these chicks destroyed. Also when should I get my nesting box built...for the hens.

-- John Fraley (jnfraley@yahoo.com), January 30, 2002

Answers

an keep them all,, freezer is a good spot for them. 2 hens, wont need more than A rooster. That may be too many actually

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 30, 2002.

One rooster per ten hens. If I were you I'd get some more hens and keep two roosters and eat five roosters.

Reason: You need two roosters because something my kill your only rooster.

Any more roosters per hens will result in very stressed out hens (more subject to disease and will reduce your efficiency/wellness/profit.

IMHO

Nesting boxes? Save yourself some money and get some free 5 gal buckets from the bakery or building site. Free, easy to clean and the chickens cant roost on top and poop on them like square boxes.

Set them on their side (one bucket per five hens, BTW)on the ground of the coop. Put in a little straw and one golf ball which fools them into thinking someone already laid an egg (they always like to lay where an egg is already).

They don't lay before, what?, 26 weeks? Put the buckets down a little before that so they get used to the change in the coop and have a chance to get acquainted with sitting in them.

Good luck--report back with what you did and how it went.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 30, 2002.

You might want to glue about 40% of a bucket lid in place. That helps control nesting material from getting out of the bucket. I use GOOP to glue mine.

-- Buddy (Buddybud@csranet.com), January 30, 2002.

John, you don't need to keep any of those roosters if you just want eggs. Much less hassle for the hens without them, especially since you have only two hens. Of course if you are hoping the hens will set and hatch out more youngin's you will(or rather the hens will)need a rooster. Once you have some chicks from these(if you chose to do so) you should get another unrelated rooster to carry on. Hope you are staying warm up there! LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), January 30, 2002.

Unless you want fertile eggs to incubate your own chicks I'd bag all the roosters and put them in the freezer. Just about the time they start to crow will give you the maximum weight gain with the minimum wear and tear on the hens. Even just one rooster could be too many for just two hens if you've got them in a fairly small run. If they're free range or in a large yard you might keep one if you wanted.

.......Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), January 30, 2002.

Keep two roosters, and eat the rest. You need genetic variety, and you need really one rooster and one back up. Get a "spanish recipt" arroz con pollo, (chicken and rice) and call all your friends, for a midwinter lunch. And you should built the nest boxes the sooner the better so your hens, will "fall in love" faster with their nest. Good Luck!!

-- Ralph Roces (rroces1@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.

My favorite "nest box" is an upside down cardboard box with unglued flaps, and a board on top (to keep the top from collapsing when the hens stand on it. Cut a SMALL door in the side (around 6" in diameter) leaving one side of the door attached. Trim the door so it "swings" freely. The door helps keep things dark inside to reduce egg eating.

To use, put the box open-side-down where you want it to stay. Open the flaps on the bottom and put in nesting material. Close the flaps and put the board on top. When you have eggs, take off the board, open the bottom, get the eggs, and close it up again. After a while, the box loosens up so you can do this with one hand if you want.

When the nesting material gets dirty, pick up the box, kick the material into the surrounding bedding, put the box back down, put in new bedding and you're all ready to go. My hens like the big box. They can share, and I only have one place to collect the eggs.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), January 31, 2002.